Remembering Dora Atlas

ASHEBORO — The 35th anniversary celebration of Our Daily Bread Kitchen was a salute to the late Rev. Dr. Dora Atlas, ODB’s founder.

The first free lunches were served in January 1990 from a building owned by the Asheboro Housing Authority. Atlas saw a need to feed the hungry using her retirement income and whatever donations came from the community.

Gene Woodle, current director of Our Daily Bread, said last year saw 40,215 enjoy meals at the facility at 831 E. Pritchard St., Asheboro. He said that it’s estimated that, since its inception, Our Daily Bread has provided “well over 200,000.”

There was a full house at AVS Banquet Centre for the annual fund-raiser, as attendees ate chicken and listened to the Central Methodist Band. Busta Brown of WZOO and Cynthia Price introduced volunteers who had worked with Atlas.

Brenda Elliott said she was working at the Asheboro Housing Authority when Atlas asked Charlie Miller, Authority director, about using a vacant building for a soup kitchen. Elliott said Miller took the matter to the board of directors with the recommendation to allow the lease and charge Atlas $1 per year.

“He appreciated her helping the community,” Elliott said of Miller. She believed he paid the $1 each year while he was with the Authority.

Linda Hill said she became friends with Atlas in 1975 when she became Hill’s church pastor. “She was a great pastor and together we could overcome a lot.” 

Hill said she worked at Our Daily Bread for a couple of years and it came to her attention that some who came in for a free meal didn’t seem to qualify as needy. She told Atlas, who replied, “That’s between them and God.”

“She was a wonderful woman,” Elliott said. “I loved her ’til the end of her life. She instilled a lot in me to help me continue on.”

Bishop Michael and Audrey Trogdon had their own testimonies about Atlas. Audrey said, “Some people are gentle giants. Dora was a little person but a giant of a woman.”

She said it became a tradition of the Trogdon family, including the three children, to serve at Our Daily Bread every Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“It was hero worship of Dora Atlas,” she said. “She helped shape (the Trogdon children) into the adults they are.”

Bishop Trogdon said, “Dora Atlas was everything, a tremendous woman, a tremendous giant.”

He said Atlas came to him and asked if he would consider taking over the leadership of Our Daily Bread. 

“I was so grateful for that. I was able to glean from her wisdom. She was rich in wisdom with nugget after nugget.”

Trogdon recalled getting a phone message from Atlas saying she was dying. He went to see her and when he walked into her room, “she sat up and said, ‘Michael,’ and began to download encouragement for me. All I could say was, ‘OK.' It’s a moment I treasure and will carry for the rest of my life.”

Next came stories from Atlas’ family. Her son Edwin said he was in the Army and regularly received letters from her. He read from a couple, in which his mother talked about Our Daily Bread and that “I believe God will supply the needs.”

In her letters, she told Edwin to “seek goals and have faith.” “She encouraged me to use basketball to give back” to kids.

Son Paul said, “We had a saint among us.” 

Paul said that in September 2018, more than a year before her death, his mother told her sons, “Y’all haven’t done a thing.” She said they hadn’t made arrangements. “Arrangements for what?” they asked. “For my funeral. Have you contacted the church?” Paul said they told her that people don’t normally do that until a person dies.

But when Atlas died, Paul went to the funeral home to inform them of his mother's passing. “Oh, we’re taking care of that,” was the reply. Atlas had already made the arrangements.

“Who does that?” Paul asked. “A saint.”

Paul’s wife, Shellena, said Dora Atlas “had a track with God that would blow your mind. On Labor Day she called on hospice,” knowing that her time was near. Her reasoning was that people who went to hospice lived six weeks.

“She left (phone) messages: ‘Hello, this is Dora. I’m dying. Have a nice day.’ ”

Shellena continued, “Six weeks to the day from hospice, she died.

“In the last months she taught us we could do this. She taught us the power and love language of prayer.”